Convenient consumption of beverages and the like by consumers is facilitated by providing packaging which maintains the contents of a package in a sealed condition until the contents are ready for consumption, with the package preferably configured to facilitate convenient opening and dispensing. Products of this nature can include container and closure packages, wherein a removable closure facilitates convenient consumption of the package's contents.
In order to assure the quality of a package's contents, it is desirable to provide packaging structures with a tamper-evident or tamper-indication feature to provide readily visually discernable evidence that a package has been partially or completely opened. Closure and container packages typically include tamper-indication arrangements, whereby partial or complete removal of a closure from the container provides the desired tamper-evidence.
For some applications, it can be desirable to provide paper-based containers, such as gable-topped containers for milk, fruit juice, and like beverages. For many years, gable-topped containers of this nature have been openable by configuring the gable-top of the container to generally be split and spread apart, along the top seam thereof, and the gable-top generally spread and opened to permit product dispensing.
More recently, convenient use of gable-topped containers has been facilitated by the provision of dispensing spout structures mountable on the angled, gable-top of the carton. By way of example, fruit juice gable-topped cartons typically include a dispensing spout structure, having a removable membrane, and an associated removable cap. Convenient opening, and reclosing, of the container is thus facilitated.
For some applications, single-serving dispensing of a containers contents is desired, and thus the expense of providing a recloseable structure can be avoided. At the same time, it is desirable to provide such an arrangement with a tamper-evident arrangement, thus assuring the quality of the container's contents.
The present invention is directed to a tamper-evident dispensing spout structure which desirably maintains the container in a sealed condition, which can be easily opened for consumption of the container's contents, and which desirably is unitary in nature, both prior to and subsequent to opening, thereby avoiding any waste or the like attendant to use. The spout is desirably configured to facilitate use by consumers without an associated straw or the like, and the attendant waste associated therewith.